The Anxieties of Hindu Nationalism: Considering Borders and Belonging in the 21st Century

Hinduism isn’t just a tradition of profound and complex philosophical and mystical insights, nor is it only a colorful temple-based tradition of devotional expression to the one or many devas or devis. In the colonial and post-colonial eras of South Asia, politically inclined Hindu thinkers developed an ideology of Hindu nationalism, which at its core may be considered an expression of deep anxiety about the place of religion in the private and public spheres and about the social hierarchies that Hinduism should enshrine. This talk considers Hindu nationalism as a form of anxiety, though it’s not usually discussed in such terms, by presenting examples of borders crises (i.e. who belongs where and who has sovereignty over whom) and crises of belonging (i.e. who gets a say within what communities).

Megan Adamson Sijapati, Ph.D.    

Chair & Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Gettysburg College

Megan Adamson Sijapati is Associate Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at Gettysburg College where she teaches courses on religious violence and nonviolence, religion and the body, Islam, and Hinduism. She is the author of the book Islamic Revival in Nepal: Religion and a New Nation (London: Routledge, 2011) and the co-editor and author of the book Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya (London: Routledge, 2016). She has published academic papers on topics ranging from religion and conflict, to Islam and Muslims in Nepal, to women and modernity in South Asia, and most recently on religion and the politics of belonging in a paper titled “Muslim Belonging in Hindu South Asia: Ambivalence and Difference in Nepali Public Discourses” in the Journal of South Asian Society and Culture. She has travel experience throughout South Asia and the Middle East where she has led seminars and conducted research.